Earl Spencer's daughter homes in on London

Earl Spencer raised eyebrows last week when he chose to be accompanied by his daughter Lady Kitty to the High Court, where he tried to finalise his divorce from his second wife, Caroline. Lady Kitty, who is the 18-year-old daughter of Charles Spencer's first wife, Victoria, tells Mandrake that she is making plans for a home with her father in west London after his divorce.

By Richard Eden

9:58PM BST 27 Jun 2009

"I'm studying English, psychology and politics at the University of Cape Town, but I don't like it over there," she informed me at the Evian VIP suite at Wimbledon.

"I'm actually hoping to transfer to an English uni, and complete my education over here. I'm working on moving to University College London. If I was at UCL I could live at my father's place in Maida Vale. He's got a place where he owns the separate apartment underneath, so I could live there and have the security of being near him."

Although Countess Spencer was granted a decree nisi in 2007 on the grounds of her husband's "unreasonable behaviour", neither of them had applied for the decree absolute because they had been unable to agree the terms of their divorce. Mandrake has reported a claim by a friend of the countess that her husband was refusing to allow her to keep their house in Maida Vale, which is said to have always been the home of their two children during the week.